March

Lately I have ran into many nannies {whom I assumed where the mom's} of young kids while at the park or the library and it surprised me and has made me realize how lucky I am!  I am so grateful to be able to stay at home with my kids.  Not everyday do I share this excitement but I truly am grateful for this privilege and try to make the most of our time! 

“The homemaker has the ultimate career. All other careers exist for one purpose only - and that is to support the ultimate career. ” -C.S. Lewis

This month crept up quickly for me! It's March! Spring is in the air and we have been enjoying our time outside.  I love to be out and fresh air and space to move around is good for the kids.

 

  

Owen has been waking up at 5 for the past few days and getting up has not been fun!

 

My daily chore.  There used to be a time where the whole house would be sparkling clean all at once but now one job gets done a day. It's not ideal but it works!

  

Typically when it's just Owen I am trying to get stuff done whether that's straightening up or prepping dinner so I decided to take him for a walk to see the sheep-he loved it! What a beautiful day! I wasn't thinking photography so luckily I had my phone!

Caitlin loves to help but her endurance isn't great so we have been working on finishing what we start.  I also love her ingenuinty and creativity on putting the silverware away!

Waiting for Carson to get home--the kids are always thrilled to see him even though he is gone a total of 4 hours!

Home Sweet Home

Carson's 1st t-ball game! He was totally against me taking any pictures 

{he was covering his face with his mitt} but I was able to get these action shots without him knowing and I LOVE them!

"I sustain myself with the love of family." Maya Angelou

Check out Sabrina Wong and see what she captured for her 10 on 10!

Caitlin's 3!

 The first guest and cousin arrived with Mimi; June bug!

Ok, so last year I was in newborn fog with Owen and did not feel up to doing anything extra especially throwing a birthday party so I didn't! I kind of felt guilty so I wanted this year to be special.  I decided to do a baking party because Caitlin loves to help, cook and eat-winning all around!

When the girls arrived they got a chef hat adorned with their name and little flower and a homemade apron.

! Now these aprons seemed like a great idea until I started making them-they took FOREVER! I am happy with the way they turned out and they looked so cute on the girls so it was worth it!

They each got pizza dough to flatten and mold and then got to put their own toppings. 

 

 I just couldn't help myself!

 I had to laugh because Caitlin doesn't like pepperoni's on her pizza but insisted on putting them on.  When her pizza came out of the oven, she immediately said, "I don't like pepperoni's!" and took them off one by one.  Silly girl!

The pizza was so delicious! I think this just  might be a new tradition around here!

 The dough kind of stuck to the table cloth...as you can see!

Next step, cake decorating! While we were waiting for the pizzas to cook, the girls got to frosting their cake{and licking the frosting of course}

 They were all so into it!

 Handful of sprinkles-on the cake or in the mouth?!         Ta-da! All done! I think she did a great job!

 Oh yeah!

The cakes turned out cute and the girls got to take them home in their very own cake boxes!

I really wanted to get a picture of all 5 girls together and although they all aren't looking every time, I see so much of their personalities and I am happy that Caitlin has such sweet friends! The best part of it for me too is that I am such good friends with their mom's so that makes it special for me too!

 Anna, Caitlin, Anna Kate, Aubree, Gracie

I love Gracie's face-oh my, like she's not sure what to think of this! {yes, it's ok to sit on the ledge!}

 

 hooray!

silly faces! 

 I think these might be my favorite because their personalities really shine through! 

 Happy Birthday to YOU!

Happy Birthday to YOU!

 Happy Birthday to Caitlin...

 Happy Birthday to YOU!

 Caitlin is pretty shy but I can tell by the look on her face that she was proud to have blown out the candles all by herself!

February

This 10/10 was fun for me because the things I captured are normal things that I routinely do.

"We love the things we love for what they are." Robert Frost

 I love where I live! It is absolutely gorgeous! I run 3-4 times a week {last year I ran 500 miles! 500! that's crazy!}at an unquestionably early hour and the great thing about that is that I get to see the sunrise so often and it is never the same and always makes me appreciate this Earth and all that I have to be thankful for. I love how I feel when I run.  Alive.  I also love the friendships and bond I have with the girls that I run and have done races with.  Each one of them is amazing and I am lucky to have so many great friends who are incredible people.

Start of our run

End of our run

Good morning sunshine! He loves his ba (ball)

Carpool to school {100th day of kindergarten!}

This little miss is turning 3 this month and when I was taking her to a friends for a play date so that I could go into Carson's class and volunteer, I pulled over for an impromptu photo because she is too dang cute!

 

Carson is such a happy boy and always has been.  He always humming or singing and I love seeing him in his element.  I often wonder what he is thinking. hmm.

When Carson saw that I was there to volunteer he ran up to me...I think my heart melted right then!

I love how much he loves learning and his teacher says that he is a good listener and student.

Searching for the perfect spot

We brought home a rocket from Montana a few summers ago and for one reason or another never used it.  After much insistence and reminders I built the rocket.  I was pretty impressed with myself and what better way to finish off his 100th day of school than with a fun memory!

After the rocket went up and came down, Carson ran over to it and found this ignitor.  It was still warm and smelled like sulfur-he thought it was pretty cool!

Check out Aimee Confer from CePennsylvania Photographer:
http://www.aimeeconfer.com/2013/02/10/10-on-10-february/

Pliability

A requirement for motherhood is flexibility. I'm not talking about the down dog, stand on your head flexibility but the pliability to take what each day brings and just go with it.

I have always had high expectations for myself but with time my expectations or rather my ability to evolve and grow and to become the person I want to be has changed. 

I remember being a newlywed and my husband was in school full time and working and a good meal to us was "mushroom surprise" with melted ice cream for dessert because our freezer didn't stay cold enough.  Regardless of the poor culinary skills and sub-par refreshments I felt grown up and I was learning how to become a better housewife. My expectation was that we had dinner together.

I also remember after having our first feeling overwhelmed by responsibility of having another person to care for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and feeling so proud if we got somewhere early with all of his essentials.  The day after he was born I slowly hobbled through Costco to buy freezer food because I could not comprehend taking care of him and cooking an entire healthy meal. 

Fast forward 5 years and we now have 3 kids and my ideas about myself and my expectations are a little different.  I can practically cook anything one handed while holding a baby! It seems like a vacation to only have 1 child; and things that I needed work on have become my strengths {I do not think I am the best cook in the world but I think I do pretty well}. The same goes for motherhood, I have been pliable to my expectations and my children's needs and have learned so much from the 3 of them in the past 5 years and I know that this growing process is an eternal one.   Lately I have been so grateful and proud of my children.  They are generous, kind, loving and thankful for what we have.  They are an example to me. 

What I am getting at is some days I want to give up and go back to my old norms of acceptability but I can't because I have learned and grown and more is expected of me because of my experiences.  We are on this earth to become better not revert to easier/lazier ways of doing things. 

Now not everyone is the same and we should not compare ourselves to someone who is more pliable or has a greater capacity to handle various situations but with consistent effort, you will grow and rise up to handle your load.  Your capacity will increase and you will look back and see your growth.

10 on 10

I don't do well with change and as I reflect on the past year and look forward to the next, the topic of time and happiness keeps surfacing.  

Time.

In my stage of life, my children take up all of my time.  I often wish that I had more time to myself or that there was more time in a day.  I prefer to be on time. 

"Time is what we want the most, but what we use the worst." -William Penn

My excuses for not wanting to participate in this photo project where that I don't have enough time but then I remembered one of my favorite quotes;

"You will never find time for anything.  If you want time, you must make it." -Charles Buxton.

My children although time consuming make every minute of life worthwhile and meaningful and I think this photo project will be a great way to capture a moment and help me to appreciate how fragile and precious our time here on earth really is. 

Try to imagine life without time keeping...you probably can't.  “Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin.”-Mother Teresa

Here are my 10ish shots in 1 day.  I am a total amateur so I have to admit I learned a lot by doing this project and found it more challenging than I had anticipated.

 

 

 Check out Shannon Steffens for another memorable day
 - http://www.mycandidmoments.com/everydaymoments/new-year-new-things/


Some great talks that I recently read that I found inspirational can be found here and here.